6.  The applicant was born in 1927 and lives in Sofia.
7.  In 1968 the applicant and his wife bought from the Sofia municipality a two-room apartment of 49 square metres which had become State property by virtue of the nationalisations carried out by the communist regime in Bulgaria in 1947 and the following years.
8.  In February 1992 the Restitution Law entered into force.
9.  In December 1992 the applicant and his wife conveyed their title to their grandson, retaining for themselves the right to use the apartment. The applicant's wife died in 1995; the applicant and their daughter were her heirs.
10.  On 30 December 1997, following a renewal of the initial one-year time-limit to bring an action under section 7 of the Restitution Law, the heir of the former owner of the apartment brought such an action against the applicant and his daughter, seeking to establish that the title of the applicant and his wife had been null and void.
11.  The ensuing proceedings ended by final judgment of the Supreme Court of Cassation of 14 July 2005. The domestic courts found that the title of the applicant and his wife had been null and void ab initio because the sale of the property in 1968 had been flawed as three of the requisite documents, namely the initial decision to sell the property, its approval, and the sale contract, had not been signed by the mayor or, respectively, the mayor of the region, as required by law, but by their deputies.
12.  In the meantime, on 15 March 2002 the heir of the former owner of the apartment brought a rei vindicatio action and an action for damages against the applicant who was still living in the apartment. In a judgment of 14 March 2006 the Sofia District Court allowed the claims and ordered the applicant to vacate the property. It found also that the applicant was liable for damages as his title had been found to be null and void ab initio and he had thus used the flat without any valid legal ground.
13.  The domestic court noted that the former owner's rights to the apartment at issue had been restored ex lege by virtue of the Restitution Law's entry into force in February 1992. Therefore, the applicant's liability for damages for having used the apartment without any valid ground had arisen on that date. On that basis, the Sofia District Court ordered the applicant to pay to the former owner 1,807.50, Bulgarian levs (BGN), the equivalent of 927 euros (EUR), in damages for the period from February 1992 to March 2002. The applicant's liability was limited to the latter date because this was when the action for damages had been brought. Apparently, the applicant failed to rely on the rules of statutory limitation, which under Bulgarian law was five years and could have led to the restriction of his liability to the period after March 1997. The applicant was also ordered to pay BGN 440, the equivalent of EUR 225, for the other party's expenses.
14.  Upon appeal by the applicant, on 15 October 2007 the Sofia District Court's judgment was upheld by the Sofia City Court. Considering that he stood no chance in cassation, the applicant did not appeal against that judgment.
15.  On 23 August 2006 the applicant and his daughter applied to receive compensation through bonds for the loss of the apartment. At the time of the applicant's latest communication to the Court of May 2010 the regional governor had not yet decided on the application for bonds.
16.  In October 2006 the applicant vacated the apartment and was granted the tenancy of a municipally-owned dwelling.
17.  The relevant background facts, domestic law and practice concerning the effect of the restitution on Bulgaria on third parties have been summarised in the Court's judgment in the case of Velikovi and Others v. Bulgaria (nos. 43278/98, 45437/99, 48014/99, 48380/99, 51362/99, 53367/99, 60036/00, 73465/01, and 194/02, 15 March 2007).
18.  The relevant judicial practice concerning liability for damages of persons who lost their property pursuant to section 7 of the Restitution Law has been summarised in the judgment in the case of Kayriakovi v. Bulgaria (no. 30945/04, § 18, 7 January 2010).
19.  Under Bulgarian law, the right to use a property, provided for in sections 56-62 of the Property Act of 1951, is considered a right in rem.